Too Fun to Check: Swalwell Behind on Taxes, Sticking Donors With Massive Childcare Bill?

Ruh roh, Shaggy. 

On paper, the Swalwells are Five Percenters. House Democrat and California gubernatorial candidate Eric Swalwell and his wife Brittany have an average combined income of more than $444,000, own a million-dollar home in the DC area, and rent a room in tony Livermore to establish their Golden State residency. 

So why did the couple stick donors with nearly a quarter-million dollars in childcare fees, and why are they behind on paying the taxes that Democrats love to impose? Inquiring minds at the Sacramento Bee want to know:

Rep. Eric Swalwell and his wife consistently brought in an income in the top 5% of Washington, D.C., households from 2021 to 2024 but made cash-raising moves anyway: drawing down retirement accounts, delaying federal tax payments and spending heavily on child care through campaign funds, according to tax returns and campaign finance filings. …

A portion of that income came from the nearly $145,000 the couple withdrew from their retirement accounts from 2020 to 2022. Eric Swalwell also zeroed out withholdings on his congressional salary in 2023 and withheld just $2,580 the year before, effectively delaying payment of his federal taxes in a move that incurred penalties.

Swalwell’s congressional salary rose from $161,648 in 2021 to $184,229 in 2024. He supplemented the salary with self-employment described in the returns as “Administrative Office Work” from 2022 to 2024, earning up to $32,000; on other disclosures, Swalwell says the income came from an LLC linked to Spycraft Entertainment, “a global production company run by former senior intelligence officers from the U.S. and U.K.”

Ahem. Swalwell’s wife makes between $200-250K a year in that same period. Even on the low end, they combine for an income right at $400K per year with Swalwell’s outside income from “Spycraft Entertainment,” a very poorly chosen name for anything connected to Swalwell. That’s a pretty good description of Swalwell’s relationship with suspected Chinese spy Christine Fang, AKA “Fang Fang.” Put that aside for a moment and focus on the money instead. Why would a couple making about seven times the average household income need to cash out their retirement accounts and postpone tax payments to the IRS?

It’s not because of the high cost of raising a family. The Swalwells have deferred those costs to their donors, according to the Bee, and the number is eye-popping:

Swalwell also used campaign funds to pay for child care for his three children at a rate far higher than anyone else in the House of Representatives, including nearly $60,000 in 2022 alone.

Sixty thousand dollars in a single year – for day care? In 2022, the oldest of their three children would have turned five, so full-time day care may have been a necessity, and that isn’t cheap in the DC area. Still, with that level of income, the Swalwells should have been able to afford it themselves rather than passing the bill onto their donors, who likely assumed that the campaign would have spent money on actual campaigning than on the personal bills of the Swalwells. 

That’s not the only year in which the Swalwells passed along those costs, either:

He’s used campaign funds to pay for more than $244,000 in child care expenses from 2019 to 2025 — the highest total in the House, and more than three times the amount spent by the next highest lawmaker. Paying for child care is permitted under federal election rules.

It’s permitted, perhaps, but Swalwell is pushing it to a jaw-dropping level. He’s also charged $25,000 in Uber Eats, and another $105,000 in Uber overall since 2020. 

Still, the conversion of retirement accounts and the failure to keep up with tax payments seem like a massive red flag. Even in the pricy DC area, a combined household income of $400K or more is not a middle-class economic stratum. Loudoun County has the highest median household income in the DC area at $170,463 in 2023, far less than half of what the Swalwells brought into their bank accounts. Most families in those areas at that income level keep up with both their childcare and tax obligations without cashing out their retirement accounts. 

The deferral of tax payments is especially noteworthy. Swalwell routinely links arms with the class warriors of the Democratic Socialists, proposing higher taxes on the wealthy, on corporations, and on capital investors. Yet Swalwell doesn’t appear too keen on keeping up with his own tax bill, even though he and his family have an income that puts them in the 96th percentile of American households. 

Something very fishy is happening with the Swalwells and their finances. Kudos to the Bee for bringing this to light … and to the oppo researcher who undoubtedly discovered this and passed it around. 

Editor’s Note: Help us continue to report the truth about corrupt politicians like Eric Swalwell.

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